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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Mega Thread 2024 Media & Miscellaneous Thread
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Silencer83
Team Captain
- Oct 16, 2013
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He is not really going out on a limb with his "shock trade" speculation that Bolton and Baker may get to Fremantle in the one trade.
Needed to get with program and speculate something like a West Australian born star playing on the east coast will request a trade back to WA. That would be suiitably vague like the other fringe journalists scrapping for recognition.
Had 6pr on in the car and I'm pretty sure Karl Langdon is a spokesperson for depends.
Who else hates the kids being involved in handing out the premiership medallions or is it just me and Charlie?
- Dec 26, 2010
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Actually I love it, but where would we be without the Daily Mail breaking one of the biggest stories of the year.
Wrong call? They wouldn't have reached GF without a good ruckman. Today other factors also favoured. That doesn't mean ruckman are useless.
On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app
On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app
- Jun 30, 2011
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Conclusive proof finally that the 'any ruck will do' is flawed superficial thinking..
Brisbane used to win them with Keating back in the day who was mid tier.
I still think paying top dollar for both Darcy and Jackson is stupid. It would look a bit better if Jackson starts to dominate in the fwd line, which he showed glimpses of in 2023.
I reckon Fort is a fair bit better than most backup ruckmen in the league. As they mentioned pre-game he travels most weeks with the team, dominates the lower comp. As evidenced on the day, did the job.
Grundy was Sydney's best player in terms of effort (and stats) for 4 quarters.
Grundy was Sydney's best player in terms of effort (and stats) for 4 quarters.
I'd argue that having Reidy and Knobel taking up list spots is a bigger issue. I'd rather have a mature ruck/forward on our list instead of Reidy.
In any event, if Darcy stays fit he's top 3 in the league and adds so much to our game. Jackson is still so young for a KPP, will be fine.
- Aug 20, 2010
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This is myopic on the one game and completely ignores the body of work to actually get there. Isolated sound bites like this make everyone less intelligent, cue classic video clip. You can't win a premiership based on analysing grand finals because it completely ignores the journey to get there. Their key ruck played an enormous role in Brisbane making the grand final.
Let's not be morons and build a list around what worked in one single game that is unique for many reasons. The focus must always be on making the grand final in the first place.
Fort is clearly an adequate ruck. We could also go analyse how pivotal Nank was to the tigers triple.
Madas
Norm Smith Medallist
- Aug 16, 2020
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The big O looked like he had been on the red cordial and snakes all day
Was fairly pinging
Gaff-like
I think the issue is around the money rucks are paid.
Big O is probably on about $350 to $400k per annum.
Fort would be on minimum chips obviously. They don’t have to do much above average to become excellent value players for the lions.
I disregard Jackson and his contract to an extent in this freo ruck debate as he’s not a proper full time ruck and I thinks that’s been demonstrated enough times. Whether his output is worth his reported salary of around $850-900k is a separate and very valid debate but has nothing directly to do with the ruck position at Fremantle.
Darcy is a full time ruck and a premium one too, paid accordingly. At his best he’s clearly a difference maker at AFL level, and that’s whether Luke Jackson is on the park or not. Darcy was a B&F winner and a premium player for us before ever Luke Jackson was on the freo list.
I don’t mind that we are trying to win by having an A grade ruck instead of a serviceable one. That’s a fair enough strategy and the coaches have every right to aggressively go down that path. However he’s got to be a high value contributor when paid that wage.
Problems arise when we are paying a guy as a premium ruck but he can’t get on the park consistently and when he does his output is akin to a $250k per annum, cheap as chip ruck. Thats been the case for Darcy for the last 2 years now.
1. It’s ****s up Luke Jackson’s role in the team as he’s doing far too much rucking.
2. Our reserve (Reidy) was not trusted all year and we had to play an underdone Darcy which arguably cost us key games late in the season.
3. This hasn’t happened YET, but it’s a possibly - we will have less money to pay our other elite players which means we will either have less of them or will lose them to big offers elsewhere.
It all comes down to Darcy’s fitness. I’ve seen enough to suggest if both Darcy and LJ are fully fit we have a significant point of difference.
But if Darcy cannot remain fit, JL is coaching with one hand behind his back already.
Someone at the club needs to make a very hard call on Darcy if he produces a third consecutive year of 10 or 12 games of fragmented footy where he’s a pale shadow of his best. Mark Duffield, a very fair and balanced journo towards freo, summed it up best I thought. There is actually an argument the fate of JLs coaching career at this level lies in the fitness of Sean Darcy. If we fail to make finals next year and Darcy has another year like 2023-24, JL won’t be able to point to his unavailablity as an excuse to save him.
- Jun 30, 2011
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You don't seriously believe that do you?
Fort is a good back-up. No way they make the big dance if Big O is out and Fort plays 20 games. Fort played 3 games in total.
Melbourne won a premiership with Gawn and Jackson. Could argue they should have made another GF with their list. The opposition in 2021 had Tim English.
Nank as you say was a critical component of 2017,19,20 premierships. Grundy got Collingwood to the big dance in 2018.
Darcy Cameron at Collingwood whilst not on a high wage has become a very good and critical player for Collingwood. Grundy was average yesterday but had a very good season especially the first 14 rounds where Sydney were unstoppable.
Geelong won in 2022 but have otherwise fallen short and always been looking for a better ruckman.
LJ needs to be released from the ruck. Play ruck rover, floating forward etc and only pinch in the ruck. When Darcy is injured he needs to be replaced with back-up Liam Ready. If LJ is injured we could pinch with Josh Treacy but he is otherwise too critical for us up forward.
Ralph is throwing out a lot of s*#t at the moment.
priority for Freo is to get Darcy fit and playing good regular footy.
What do you think he’s on then? Give us a number. He wasn’t a restricted free agent as far as I recall. A rookie pick, would have been earning lowish pay for most of his career.
I’ve got
Neale
McLuggage
Daniher
Hipwood
Dunkley
Andrews
Cameron
Berry
Rayner
Zorko
Bailey
All definitely on bigger salaries than McInerney.
Probably on similar coin to Jack Payne, AhChee (actually he’s another probably paid more, a former pick 8 from Gold Coast wouldn’t be underpaid that’s for sure). Lincoln McCarthy.
Ok. Maybe big O is on $450k then.
Chances are Grundy isn't that good anymore more. The assumption that rucks aren't valuable because a second tier ruckman broke even with him is interesting. He is highly paid but I don't see that he has ever reached the same heights of his ability when the original million dollar contract was first signed. Anecdotally. Before i get six million stats thrown back at me. He doesn't look that good anymore from the games I have seen.
- Jun 30, 2011
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I don't even know where to start if you think one of the top 10 rucks in the comp resigned for less than the median wage pre new cba. All that stuff about restricted or unrestricted free agency is irrelevant, he signed more than a year before his free agency. And he was on low wages because he was a rookie?? Sandi was a rookie too what was he on at his peak?
He's be on 600 K plus.
- Dec 26, 2010
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There was some talk about Grundy after the game by the commentators on ABC radio after they interviewed Lachie Neale about the centre clearances where he basically said he just read it off the ruck hands.
I didn't notice it, but commentators on ABC were saying the Grundy's methodology of going across the line at the centre bounces and leaning into Fort for a physical advantage rather than jumping for the hitout meant that most of his taps ended up dropping close to the ruck contest. They were saying he limited his options of being able to direct the ball wider and all Fort had to do was minimise the effectivness of Grundy's reach over him by not getting pushed aside.
I think this is a big part of why Jackson jumps early in the ball-ups and bounces, esp. the bounces. It halves the contest by making it much more unpredictable to all, and leaves the oppo ruck having to deal with a falling body rather than using their weight advantage to hold position.
There is absolutely no way he’s earning $600k. They have a team stuffed full of stars and at least a dozen paid more than him.
Sandi was a multiple AA - different level altogether to McInerney. Not even comparable.
Anyway agree to disagree
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